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rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
relics of their feasts and a few rude implements at the lowest 
horizon. The broken bones and the jaws of the animal lie 
indiscriminately mixed up with the remains of the red-deer* 
horse, and Celtic shorthorn (Bos longifrons ). Two of the jaws, 
indeed, rival in size those of the great cave-bear. The section 
at the entrance of this cave shows the relation in point of time 
between the Neolithic occupation and the present day. On the 
surface is an accumulation of angular fragments of limestone, 
fallen from the cliff, which rests on a stratum two feet in 
thickness, containing Celtic enamels and Eoman coins, which 
cannot be of a later date than a.d. 746. Under the latter is a 
similar accumulation, no less than six feet thick, which rests on 
the lower Neolithic horizon. It may therefore fairly be as- 
sumed to have taken thrice as long a time for. its accumulation 
as the first — that is to say, if 1,200 years be required for 
the first, 3,600 years would be required for the second. And 
thus we roughly get at the date when the bear was eaten by 
the Neolithic hunters, which would be about 4,000 years ago. 
This is one of the very few cases in which even a guess can be 
hazarded of the lapse of past time in the region outside history. 
Nor are we without direct testimony that the bear was killed 
by the hand of man during the Roman occupation of Britain. 
In the collection of bones from the refuse heaps round Col- 
chester, made by Dr. Bree, the animal occurs along with the 
badger, wolf, Celtic shorthorn and goat. I have also met with it 
in a similar refuse heap, at Richmond in Yorkshire, which most 
probably is of Roman origin. Indeed, in the northern parts 
of our island, the bear was sufficiently abundant during the 
Roman occupation to have been exported to Rome for the 
gladiatorial shows, unless Martial’s “ Ursus Caledonius ” be a 
mere flight of poetical imagination. 
Nuda Caledonio sic prsebuit pectora urso 
Non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus. 
The mention of a trade in Caledonian bears in Plutarch goes 
far to prove the truth of this incidental allusion. But whether 
it be true or not, there can be but little doubt that the animal 
inhabited the great Caledonian forest during the Roman 
occupation of Britain. The precise date of its extinction 
cannot be determined with any very great accuracy. One of 
the G-ordons is said to have killed the last bear in Scotland in 
the year 1057, but I have been unable to verify the fact. The 
statement is made by Pennant, on the authority of an heraldic 
legend. The animal might naturally have been expected to have 
lino-ered in the mountains of Wales long after it was driven 
from the cultivated and fertile portions of Roman Britain. 
